REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT RECEPTION FOR WORLD SERIES CHAMPION
FLORIDA MARLINS

The East Room

4:42 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Well, welcome to the White House. Mr. Smiley,
Mr. Leyland. Glad to be joined by the Executive Director of the
Players Association, Don Fehr; Congressman Deutsch, Congressman Foley,
Congressman Wexler. I think I should also say -- I see my EPA
Administrator, Carol Browner, here. You should know that this
administration has three members, along with Carol Browner, Attorney
General Janet Reno and the Secretary of the Treasury Bob Rubin who all
grew up in South Florida. They're fairly happy about the outcome of
the World Series. (Applause.)

You can tell that I am not running for office anymore -- I might
not have said that here. (Laughter.) But we are delighted.

When I was first elected President I never could have dreamed that
a lot of the things that would occur in the last five years have
occurred. I didn't imagine then that millions of people would be using
the Internet every day. When I was first elected President, there were
only 50 sites, and they were all the province of physicists. I couldn't
have imagined that the deficit would come from $300 billion to zero in
five years. And I could not have predicted that the Florida Marlins
would be here because they hadn't even played a game yet. (Laughter.)
That is a truly astonishing achievement. (Applause.)

But what you did in a short time was a gift to your magnificent
leader, Jim Leyland, for a lifetime in professional baseball. And all
of us who are baseball fans of whatever team had to be happy about that.

And, of course, a manager can't win without talented players and
without teamwork. Livian Hernandez dazzled us with his pitching and
became only the second rookie ever to win the World Series MVP Award.
Charles Johnson's defense earned him the Gold Glove as catcher for the
third year in a row. Edgar Renteria's name will live in baseball
history forever for ending one of the most exciting World Series in
history with his two-out single in the bottom of the 11th. You know,
those games got so long, some of us really did want them to go on
forever after a while. (Laughter.)

Baseball I think made a huge comeback as America's national
pastime in this World Series, thanks to the magnificent competition
which you won deservedly.

You know, a lot of the players on this team are newcomers to our
country, and so are many of the fans of the Florida Marlins. I suppose
it's only right that the capital of the Americas would take its turn as
the baseball capital of the world. But even more importantly, we should
be proud of the example this team set, proving once again that people of
very different ethnic backgrounds can play together and win together.
Now, it may not be the precise same Marlin team that played the Indians
last year that takes the field on opening day, but if the players keep
the same spirit they'll be sure to be in the hunt again when the season
comes to a close.

Congratulations. For all of us who grew up with baseball as a
national pastime, you gave America a great gift last year that none of
us will ever forget. Thank you. (Applause.)

MR. SMILEY: Mr. President, thank you very much. On behalf of our
owner, Wayne Huizenga; General Manager Dave Dombrowski, Jim Leyland's
wife Katie, our players, our coaches, all of our front office staff back
home, our officers, and especially our fans of South Florida, we were
very excited to win the World Series, obviously, but we're very excited
to be here today.

We thank you for this invitation to come to the White House.
We're exhilarated by it. And hopefully, real soon we'll be able to do
it again, after our next World Series Championship. Thank you.
(Applause.)

Mr. President, we do believe baseball has made a comeback, and I
believe that from our personal standpoint with the Florida Marlins, if
I'm half as successful in balancing our budget as you were with
America's, we will be back and we will win championships for years to
come. (Applause.)

I have to give Bobby Bonilla some credit for that. He actually
thought of it. (Laughter.) But, anyway, Mr. President, we would like
to let you know, and the First Lady know, and your entire Cabinet, that
you are in our prayers and we will be thinking of you as you have these
tough decisions to make here shortly.

Thank you very much. (Applause.)

MR. LEYLAND: Thank you very much. Mr. President, I really don't
know if you know this or not, but you are the most important person I
ever played golf with in my life. (Laughter.) And I, too, would like
to echo those sentiments --

SOMEONE IN THE AUDIENCE: Who won?

THE PRESIDENT: We did. We we're partners. (Laughter.)

MR. LEYLAND: I also would like to echo those sentiments on behalf
of the Florida Marlins. We are truly honored to be invited here today.
It is a true pleasure for us. And we cannot thank you enough for the
job that you have done in running this great country, the greatest
country in the world, during your time as President of the United
States. And that's from myself and all the players. Keep up the good
work. And thank you for tremendous efforts in everything you've done
for us. (Applause.)

And at this time, I would like to introduce one of our players who
has a presentation for President Clinton. I know you're very familiar
with this player, Mr. President, because he was a Baltimore Oriole for a
short time -- (laughter) -- but I hate to tell you that we had to get
him to South Florida before he could get that World Championship.
Here's Bobby Bonilla. (Applause.)

MR. BONILLA: On behalf of the Florida Marlins, the World Champion
Florida Marlins, I mean -- I'm kind of nervous here because this is a
kid from the South Bronx getting ready to stand here and give the
President of our United States a World Series jersey. So this is really
exciting for me. And I wish all of us on that World Championship team
could be here, but they are working on that '98 budget cut. (Laughter.)
But this is a great bunch. (Laughter.) It's a great bunch.
(Applause.) So here you go. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Since you mentioned our golf game, I
want to make two brief points before we adjourn -- we're going to take
a picture. (Laughter.) Number one is I want you to get another ring
so you can quit about the time I quit, and then we'll go on the senior
tour together. (Laughter.)

Secondly, if you really thought of that line about the budget, we
have a position open in the speechwriting staff that you'd be welcome to
anytime. (Laughter and applause.)